Advice for New Bloggers 2018 That Will Help You Keep Blogging

Advice for new bloggers, find out what you need to do to succeed in blogging. Starting a blog is easy, but growing it and making money can be challenging. That’s where my advice for new blogger will help you just keep blogging.

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I started this blog back in October of 2016 to share my WordPress experience for new bloggers. In turn, I thought I’d share my personal experience and journey with you to help you start, grow and monetize your own blog.

Especially, at the beginning when you’re NOT making any money from it yet.

Advice for New Bloggers Just Keep Blogging

When you first start your blog, it’s exciting. You’re ready to get your thoughts on your blog and even more excited about the possibilities. You’ve read several income reports online and know that it’s possible to make money.

The only thought behind your mind is how long is going to make me money? We’ve all had that thought creep through our mind at one point or another.

The Truth About Blogging

Blogging is hard and you’re going to have to put a lot of work in on the front end if you want to see results. This means that you need to stop focusing on the money and start focusing on providing the best content possible.

I’m not saying you won’t make money with your blog. I truly believe that with time, you will.

I wish I could tell you that it’s going to take you 1-2 years to start seeing a passive income. The truth is, I have no clue how long it’s going to take you.

Getting Discouraged

Believe me, I know about getting discouraged because you’re not seeing results fast enough. It’s hard when you look at other bloggers and they seem to be doing everything right and having success quicker than you are.

Things are going great for them and maybe they even started the same time you did?

However, one of the worst things you can do is try to compare yourself to them. It’ll make you go crazy and you might even throw in the towel.

It doesn’t matter how much so and so is making

Don’t focus on how many subscribers so and so has

etc..

Keep your head down and keep blogging. There’s no point in playing the comparison game because it doesn’t matter.

Just because so is so is making $1000 per month on their blog doesn’t help you. Their success doesn’t mean anything except that they’ve figured this blogging thing out.

You don’t know what journey they’ve had up to this point. If you peel back their success story, you will see their struggles and their own story.

Success doesn’t happen overnight for most bloggers. It takes time to build a profitable blog.

Celebrate Their Success

I am not saying that you shouldn’t be happy for other bloggers who are making money with their blog. I am just saying that you can too.

You don’t know their story and maybe they worked on their blog 24/7 while you were only able to fit in an hour here and there.

It does come with a little bit of a learning curve, but that’s why I have some WordPress tutorials that you can use to learn the basics. Don’t forget to sign up for my 7 Day WordPress course.

It’ll teach you how to set up your WordPress blog properly. Plus I’ll also share what I am doing to grow this blog. My goal is to show you how I take this blog from scratch to profitable.

Monetize From Day One

I know that there are many bloggers who say that you should wait until you have 5,000 page views before you start monetizing. However, increasing your page views is hard. (at least it is for me)

I’ve made a few affiliate sales from this blog and I am still not getting 5,000 page views. Imagine if I had waited until I got 5,000 page views, my blog wouldn’t have made a penny.

Don’t Blog for The Money

That’s kind of a catch 22 isn’t. Most of us start our blogs because we want to make either a part-time income or replace our jobs. Me, I want to walk away from my WordPress freelancing business.

No one wants to work this hard only to realize that years down the road they’re not making any money. I am not saying that you shouldn’t try to make money with your blog, that would be hypocritical.

Instead, I am saying to serve as many people as you can by providing the best content available. In turn, you’ll start to make money because people will come to your blog for advice and use it as their go-to resource.

Eventually, people will click on your affiliate links and buy your products and services.

But it’s going to take time to build up your blog to this point and level. When you’re brand new, your main focus shouldn’t be making money.

Instead, it should be about providing the best content available that actually helps people. Which should always be the purpose of your blog, no matter what.

Promote Your Blog

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they start a blog is they forget about promotion. I waited until this blog was 5 months old before I started promoting it.

Don’t make that mistake. As soon as you have some great content start promoting it. Don’t expect to get any Google love for at least six months from your blog.

It’s going to take a while before you start seeing organic traffic. It took this blog about 7 months before I started seeing traffic.

Also, I’ve written a Kindle eBook that shares everything I’ve learned about using Pinterest in the past year, you can buy it here.

How to Find Profitable Keywords With Low Competition

One of the best things that you can do if you’re a brand new blogger is learn everything you can about keywords. Just because it’s going to take you a while to start seeing results from Google, doesn’t mean that it should take you forever to rank a blog post.

One of the best investments I’ve made is investing in LongTailPro to help me find keywords that I can actually rank for.

Maybe, I’ll write a post on how I use LongTailPro to help me find some low hanging fruit keywords in the future.

As you know, I write a lot of tutorials on WordPress to help you learn the basics. Well, that’s such a competitive niche that it’s hard to get first page listings on Google.

Yes, I could build some backlinks to my blog posts and see if I could rank those posts higher. But the truth is that I hate building backlinks.

I’d rather write a guest post and get my name out in front of someone else’s audience, instead of focusing on link building. If you’re planning on guest posting, here’s a great guide that will show you how to do it the right way.

Focus On One Social Media Platform

As beginners, we’re all told that we need to get on social media if we want to grow our blog. It took me forever to join social media because I had no clue how to use it.

The biggest mistake that I made was trying to be on all the social media sites. I would spend time on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. It was crazy.

I don’t get to work on my blog all day. I am still working as a WordPress freelancer so I have to allocate my time the right way if I want it to grow.

Plus, I really don’t want to work on my blog 24/7 and I am sure you feel the same way.

I started using Google Analytics to see which social media sites were sending me the most traffic. Once I realized that most of my traffic was coming to Pinterest, I started focusing on that.

Why I Don’t Focus On Just Pinterest

Everyone is different and you’ll hear some people say that you should stop everything you’re doing and learn the ins and outs of Pinterest before moving onto other traffic methods.

I’ve seen this advice work for several bloggers. Some bloggers who put all their time and energy into learning Pinterest are now getting thousands of page views.

I’d Rather Not

To tell you the truth, Pinterest hasn’t come very easy to me. I guess that’s why I don’t focus 100% on it. I’d rather get my traffic from multiple sources.

Yes it’s going to take longer to grow my blog. However, I feel a lot better knowing that not all my traffic is coming from just one source.

I’ve been in that boat before in the past where all my traffic was coming from just one place. Back in the day, all my traffic came from Google.

It was nice and because the traffic came pretty easy, I put blinders on and refused to learn other traffic methods.

One day that traffic disappeared it was heartbreaking and it even caused me to throw in the towel. Now here I am again with this new blog.

I Want to Be Everywhere

I’m not saying that I don’t work on my Pinterest marketing tactics. I am just saying that I’d rather not have all my traffic coming from just one source.

I do realize this is the long road to success. However, I won’t put all my hopes and dreams on Pinterest or any one traffic method again. I don’t want my blog to go belly up if something happens to that one traffic source.

Of course, you can choose to learn Pinterest completely and then move onto other traffic methods. If you want a great Pinterest Course that will teach you everything you need to know to get started, I recommend Pinning Perfect.

If you’re a more advanced Pinterest user and need more advanced strategies, I recommend PIMP.

Both of these courses are great. I’ve used both of them to help me improve my Pinterest traffic.

The great thing is that you can choose whatever traffic strategy you want. It’s your blog and you have to decide where you want to place your time and energy.

Grow Your Email List

I am still learning how to grow my email list and improve the conversion rates. At the time of this writing, I have about 110 subscribers.

List building hasn’t been my area of focus. I know, I know, I should be focusing on growing my list.

However, I’ve never been good at growing an email list. Plus I wanted to make sure that I had a plan on what I was going to do with it once I got people on my list.

In 2018, I plan on focusing more on list building. I’m even going to start creating landing pages to help me see if I can increase conversions. Right now, my opt-in rates suck.

Don’t Wait Until Everything Is Perfect

One of the biggest mistakes that I see so many new bloggers making is they wait until everything is perfect. They want to create the best looking logos.

It’s so easy to fall into the belief that you don’t have the best theme. Then before you know it, you’re paying thousands of dollars to have someone design your WordPress theme.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pay for a WordPress theme. I understand that choosing the right theme can be confusing.

However, at the beginning, the theme you’re using isn’t going to matter. Plus you can always change out your theme later.

I use the Genesis Framework for this blog, but I know that my freelance clients love sites built on:

They love the fact that they can go in there and make any kind of changes to their site without having to worry about knowing how to code.

Don’t spend too much time trying to find the perfect theme, because to tell you the truth I don’t think it’s important. If you don’t believe me, read this story about this blogger who has gotten over 6 million views from a $70 blog.

It’ll amaze you and get you thinking differently about what’s truly important for new bloggers.

Don’t Overspend On The Wrong Things

It doesn’t cost a lot of money to run a blog. However, if you’re trying to build a real business, you’re going to have to invest in some tools that will make your life easier.

It’s so easy to buy this and that because other bloggers say you need it. Before you invest any money in blogging tools, ask yourself these questions:

How is this going to help me reach my goals?

Will this make my life easier?

Can I really afford it?

Do I really need this tool to help me grow my blog?

Does it have a free trial?

Will I actually use it?

Is it a one-time payment?

Can I make my money back?

I’m sure there are more questions you can ask yourself, but these are the questions I use whenever I invest in a new blogging tool.

I don’t mind spending money on tools and resources that actually help me. However, I don’t want to spend money on things that I never use. I’ve done that before and it’s so easy to spend money on the things that you don’t really need.

Continuing to educate ourselves in our online education is a must. Things change so much and while you can find information for free online.

The truth is that investing in the right course and coaches will help you see success a lot quicker.

Don’t Listen To Everyone

If I can drill something into your head it’s don’t listen to everyone. As a new blogger, one of the first things we do is join Facebook groups so we can network with other bloggers.

I’ve joined several Facebook Groups and have met some fantastic bloggers. I even landed my very first guest post by networking in Facebook Groups.

However, everyone has their own blogging opinions. And what works for others doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you.

It’s okay to ask questions and get help. But truthfully, the only way you learn is if you keep blogging and testing things out for yourself.

There is no secret to blogging. Ask any successful blogger and they will tell you that consistency is the name of the game.

When You Feel Like Quitting

It’s tough when you keep working and working and working and don’t see any results. However, when you feel like quitting that’s when you need to look at your why you started your blog.

Take your goals to your wall in front of your computer and keep blogging.

Don’t be afraid to take some time off from your blog. I still get frustrated sometimes with my results and this is why I’ve made it a point to set up a WordPress editorial calendar.

This makes it easy for me to take time off of my blog without having to worry about messing up my blogging schedule.

Keep Moving Forward

I wish I could tell you that it’s going to be easy. Some of us tend to have an easier time with the techie stuff of blogging. While others tend to struggle with the marketing side of blogging.

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Mine is promotion and list building. What’s yours?

The one thing that we all have in common as bloggers. Is that we all want to help our readers by providing the best possible content that will help them solve their problems.

In order to get our message out and stand out in a sea of blogs is we have to keep moving forward. Don’t stop even when you think that you’re not getting anywhere.

Because it’s going to take time and the only way you won’t reach your goals is if you quit.

ShareASale: ShareASale is one of my favorite affiliate networks. It’s free to sign up and they have tons of advertisers that make it easy for any blogger to make money through affiliate marketing.

SEMRush: This tool is amazing and has helped me increase my organic traffic. It is expensive, so don’t pay for it every month. When I’m NOT using it, I’m using KWFinder to help me with my keyword research.

About Susan Velez

Hi! I'm Susan welcome to my blog. Are you ready to use the Internet and a computer to change your finances? I share tips to help you make money online through blogging, side hustles and other non-traditional methods learn moreTwitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube

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Comments

Very well written post. Blogging is an art and everyone have to learn it in order to get success in it. Definitely blogging needs time, patience and lot of hard work. Creating a blog is very easy but growing and make it established is a big challenge for newbies. You have gain the trust and loyalty of your visitors and turn them into susbcribers, This can be done through by providing useful content that help your readers. Thanks for sharing these great and helpful insights.

Susan Velez, Very informative piece.I enjoyed reading every single line. The way you presented is amazing.I was hooked. you touched all the problems related to beginners. Also would like to hear your take on Adsense.

I may end up putting ads back on my blog at some point. But I don’t think it’s the best way for a beginner to start monetizing their blog. My personal experience was that I was just making pennies when I tested it out on my blog.

I’d rather start with affiliate marketing, you give yourself a better opportunity to make more money than with ads.

Then once your site is getting a lot more traffic, I’d consider testing ads again. That’s just what I learned from my personal experience.

Indeed people are now days switching their day to day job on a regular paycheck and getting into the blogging profession.

Many of them is coming up quickly and many are shutting their blogs down as they see not a single green site through their writing skills. Actually blogging ain’t easy task, yeah once we are settled and keeping things run smoothly then, money do rain from sky but to make it happen it takes time and lot of hard work and dedication.

Thats a good tips, rather than watching every one else and spending too much time wandering from here to there one should stick to their blogs and niche. Find ways through which they can create a win win situation for them self.

Indeed firstly we need to help out others, try to establish relations with other pro bloggers and people so that they can help us too. They can know about us and what are we offering to them rather just running behind money and thinking ways to generate it. Its important to create our online image first so that more and more people know us. Keep crafting content in these time, so that one can have a look at our work and products or how can we help them, once people are satisfied with us then we can go for money.

Hi Susan, What a post i get to read! A well executed mind-blowing post it is! I can share my experience of mistakes i did but, you had pointed out all those mistakes i did. I already attempted to quit up. But, a friend of mine helped me to keep me calm and pointed out my mistakes, now i am getting page views, traffic and faith. I always try to concentrate on my audience and try to listen their needs. You have mentioned a lot of great strategies. I will definitely take these on my count and hope i can get more good results from now. thanks a lot for your wonderful strategies. Have a great weekend dear.

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